I fucking hate Christmas shopping.
Yet, I went shopping on Saturday morning.
What WAS I thinking?
Clearly, I wasn’t thinking I guess.
The next time I want to go shopping 4 weeks before Christmas? Someone slap me! Please!
I can never decide what’s the worst of the debacle at this time of year.
The screaming kids or the parents who insist on dragging them from one shop to another ad nauseum until the poor bloody kids are so tired and sick of it that they DO scream.
They drag them out of the house at some ungodly hour so that they can park as close as possible to the shopping centre entrance and the fun begins.
In and out of shops for hours on end regardless of the childs discomfort, needs or anything else.
The to add insult to injury at the end of all that, it’s time to sit on Santa’s knee.
Gee! I wonder why the kids is screaming the place down and refuses point blank to smile like the little angel we all know they can be?
They’ve been up since sparrow fart, carted from one end of town to the other.
They’re tired, they’re irritable.
They’ve has E.N.O.U.G.H
I love kids. I do. Please don’t get me wrong.
But they do have their place and Christmas shopping for hours on end from early morning till mid afternoon is NOT one of them.
FFS, leave the kids at home with Dad, or Nanny, or anyone, but don’t drag them from one end of town to the other and then yell at them when they get tired and cranky because they’re 4 hours past the time when they’re accustomed to peacefully sleeping in their air conditioned bedroom for a couple of hours.
The pic above is directed at the parents of these poor little mites, not the kids.
Here’s a thought.
Maybe you could teach them the REAL meaning of Christmas, which is NOT the presents you seem so intent upon accumulating and sending yourself to the poor house for?
You could at least do that with a book in the comfort of your home, so you won’t have to drag them out in the stinking hot NQ sun, and into a stuffy car for the 6 mile drive to wherever it is you’re going.
Morons!

I’m sitting here on Saturday morning, trying to kill a bit of time till the bank opens so I can go do a few little things.
Mark has gone to work and he’s left the TV on.
It’s on the news channel and I’m not really listening until some tree hugging, hairy armpitted, holier than thou environmentalist pops up with some {apparent} words of wisdom for keeping the planet green.
You know what this twit said?
“If you must use the clothes dryer, make sure your washing machine spins as much water as possible from the clothes before you put them in…”
You think??? Well shit, thanks for clearing that little question up, because here was me thinking of putting them in while they’re still dripping wet and hoping for the fricking best!!
The tone with which she said “If you MUST use the clothes dryer…”
FFS woman, it’s the wet season here in NQ and after 2 days of torrential rain with the promise of more for the rest of the week, I’m thinking I MUST if I don’t want to be wearing my knickers inside out for the coming working week.
I’m all for saving the planet, don’t get me wrong. I want my grandchildren to HAVE a planet, but if you MUST give advise, FFS state more than the bleeding obvious!
Tree hugging, hairy armpitted, holier than thou environmentalists!
Can’t stand them, can’t kill them!
:roll:

I’ve never been an E Bay fan.
The place normally drives me nuts. Too much happening, too may people. I hate ALL crowds, even virtual ones. Being close to Christmas just makes it worse too. Every bastard and his dog is shopping! Sheesh!
However….
I needed to go on a mission. A special friend wanted a special present and I couldn’t find what I wanted anywhere at what I considered a reasonable price.
Hmm. This isn’t good. What to do now?
Ok. Bit the bullet. Took the dreaded step.
Yes, I joined E Bay!!

:shock:
Once I’m there, off to find what I want.
Found one. Goodo!
Put the bid in.
All is well. I’m in the lead.
Looking good!!!
Nope! Some bastard wanted it more than me. Fine shit for brains! Fucking have it!!!
Having said that i was pretty pissy about it. Never mind! The eternal optimist, I’ll find another one!
Sure enough, I found THE thing I wanted. Perfect!! Just perfect I tell you!
Right says I. I’ll have this one.
Different tactics this time. Sit back and wait I tell myself. Wait and see what the “others” do!! That’s the ticket!!
So wait I did. Until last night when there was only an hour left.
A bit of luck! Not another person who had bid was online. The little screens tell you which bidders are online. Bonus!!
Waiting, waiting…waiting some more!!
Sitting in the corner, very quietly. Like creeping Jesus I was. Stalking the item, peeking around corners, ducking into the shadows if anyone came near me!! VERRRRRRRRY sneaky!!
With 10 mins to go I pounced!!!! Put in my near to maximum bid and ducked back into the shadows before anyone spotted me. I was like the Scarlet fucking Pimpernel I tell you!
Then the fun began.
Have tea.
Laptop in lap.
Bidding page up.
Refreshing every 20 secs.
Squirming in the chair.
Still in the lead with 9 minutes to go!!
Refresh.
Shit, some johnny come fucking lately has decided to lurk! S.O.B!! Get out of it!! It’s mine…MINE I TELL YOU!!! Don’t even think about it you prick!!
Refresh.
Phew! He decided the game was a little rich. Just as well mate!! I’ve got your bloody measure anwyay. Don’t fuck with me or you’ll come off second best!!!
He took the hint. Wise man..woman??? Who knows?? Who cares???
Refresh again.
Aforementioned lurker has helped kill off 6 mins. Only 4 to go!!
Breaking out in sweat here.
Sucking on tea.
Refreshing like a manic first day blogger waiting on their first comment I was!!
Sweat dribbling down the back of my neck by now.
90 seconds!
60!
30!
YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It’s mine!!
All mine!!!
SUCCESS!! I AM THE CHAMPION!! NOONE CAN STOP ME NOW!!!
Wiped my brow. Towelled the back of my neck.
Swallowed the last of my tea.
Phew!!
Fucking exhausted!!!!
Who knew bidding for an item on fucking E BAy could cause an adrnalin rush like that???

Now I’m spending more time there than on my blog, and we all know how much time I spend HERE right???
Anyone know of a 10 step program I can join to kick E Bay??
I could get SERIOUSLY addicted to this bidding online people, JUST for the rush!
Someone tell Mark to keep the credit card locked up for eveybody’s sake!!
Please???

I tend to become particularly reflective around Christmas.
I don’t know why. Maybe it’s that the end of the year is approaching and I’m looking back with perhaps a frown, or a smile.
This in turn ordinarily leads me to the Christmas’s of my childhood.
It’s just something I’ve always done.
I digress. My apologies.
When I was a little girl one of my favourite sayings was “I wish…..” followed by whatever current dream/hope/want was running rampant through my fanciful little head.
My mothers response, every time, was “If wishes were horses, beggars would ride” accompanied by a smile.
At that time, only being little, the actual meaning behind her repsonse was lost on me.
In my innocence, before life dished up some harsh lessons, I seriously believed these wishes would come true.
These days, as an older and more street wise adult, I don’t so much wish, as hope.
I believe with every fibre of my being that to give up on hope is to throw in the towel on life.
I refuse point blank to do that. Ever.
Sure, life gets to me now and then, I’ll admit that. Yet even through those times, I still carry hope inside me. I may not speak of it, but make no mistake, it’s there.
I can almost see it inside me, if that makes sense?
When I visualise hope, it’s bright and shining like a beacon.
When shadows threaten to blot it out, there is a glimmer which continues to peep through, just in the corner.
It’s that little glimmer keeps me going through the darkness.
Almost seems to guide me through to the other side of whatever troubles me.
Just a tiny spark that tells me everything will work out for the best even if I don’t understand why what’s happening, is happening {Which is quite often I might add}
It’s warm, fuzzy, but most of all it’s comforting.
I’ve always found it strange how a feeling such as hope can generate such comfort inside.
If I had to verbalise it as a taste, it would be sugar.
Maybe it’s the sweet taste that makes me hang onto hope so tight?

Given there is only a month left till Christmas, I though it was time to unveil my seasonal theme.
I decided when I started blogging that I would create just one tradition, and that was to have a Christmas theme each year. Nothing like tradition is there?
I almost went with the one I had my first year, then thought, NO!, I want a different one.
This wasn’t my first choice, however the other one gave me some grief over the last week, and eventually I gave up and found this one.
To comment, you need to click the little red snowflake beside the post title. Had me flummoxed for a small while until realised the number in that snowflake is the amount of comments on each post.
Tricky huh???
I love the colours on this one, and the layout, even thought it only has 1 sidebar and I prefer 2. We can’t have everything we want though I guess *shrug* Shit happens.
So. Enjoy, look around, and above all, let me know what you think of my choice this year.

Could you all do me a favour and please change the URL for my link if you haven’t already? And the blog name too would be good.
I know some of you have done it, and I thank you.
To everyone else, I thank you in advance

We’re going overseas next year, so the time has come to look at silly essential things like passports, visas etc.
So, with this in mind I started researching what we would need in order to obtain these fripperies necessities.
Thus the post title come to mind, as did the pic. I’ve been sitting on this pic for some time waiting for the perfect opportunity to use it.
Well I’ve fucking found it now!!
To get a passport I require:
Drivers licence {easy peasy}
Medicare card {again, easy}
Full birth certificate {extract will NOT suffice, which is what they issue ordinarily, and of course, what I have}
Now, because I don’t live in the state I was born in, the process becomes more complicated because I have to take all relevant docmentation to a police station to have it verified before I can send it away to the state where I was born.
Add that to having been married in another state again, it just keeps getting better!
Ok, birth certificate. Go to Births, Deaths and Marriages for the relevant state.
You ever tried to navigate your way around a government site? Shit, you need a compass, sextant, packed lunch and a sleeping bag just to find the section you need!!
Am I the only one has difficulty with these fricking sites?? Why, why oh why can they not just have little links that say “Go here, click this, do that, press the purple button” and Bob’s your Uncle?
Hell no!! Instead you end up with 103 pop up windows all telling you the same fucking thing, by which time you’re secretly plotting to over throw the bastards in THE bloodiest coup ever seen in the history of man.
Eventually work that out, head off to Births, Deaths and Marriages for the state where we were married.
Guess what? Same shit, different state!! Another packed lunch is required.
Bureaucratic bullshit designed to drive me, you and every other person alive, totally nuts!!
Why do they have to make them so damned difficult to find anything?
Now, I’m not a stupid person, nor am I particularly challenged when it comes to modern day methods of doing thing online. It’s how I do most things, and in fact spend 98% of my free waking moments on the laptop, connected to the net.
I can traverse a {complicated} hosting site, set up a database followed by building a blog, understand some PHP coding, manage to muddle my way through the odd bit of CSS, understand plugins and what they do, manage all my banking online, set up my computer, and many other things to boot.
In the space of 20 minutes, looking for a way to assemble the required information to obtain a full birth certificate, bureaucracy manages to make me feel like some type of dim witted female from the back woods who struggles to comprehend her own name.
The people who make the decisions on how these government sites are laid out need to pull their heads out of their arses and realise it’s every day people who need to use these sites.
Not all of them have an IQ bordering on the genius level you morons!
No wonder the frigging government can’t get anything done. Their convoluted processes, even on websites, excludes actually being able to achieve anything vaguely productive!
Sheesh!
:roll:

Yes, I’ll say it out loud.
It’s nearly Christmas. As scary as that thought is, it’s the truth and I had to say it. One month and 6 days left.
5 parts of fuck all huh???
So. Who’s organised? Got pressies? Menu sorted? Decided whether to leave Santa a scotch or bourbon?
Shit, not me!!! I have NFI other than we’re going out for Christmas lunch with one daughter and son in law.
No kiddies this year, just the 4 of us. We’ve never gone out for Chrissie dinner before so this is a first for us.
The problem is, we live in the tropical paradise that is Nth QLD. Everybody bitches and whinges when I want a hot lunch and we always have the same old argument.
Hot, cold, seafood, everybody has an opinion and like me, don’t hold back on voicing said opinion.
I love a hot lunch because that’s what I’ve always done you know? I’m not asking them to cook it, or be in the hot kitchen, all I ask is they eat it.
I allowed myself to be talked into a cold buffet one year.
NEVER AGAIN! Never!
Just wasn’t Christmas. Shit, I can have cold meat and salad every day of the week, why the hell do I want to have it for Christmas dinner???
By going out, we all get what we want. They have traditional Christmas fare, and the more unconventional salads, seafood etc. The so called “new age, climate appropriate” food.
Just isn’t the same to me. It should be ham, turkey, chicken, lamb/beef, pork, turkey, mountains of baked vegies, lots of greens, and all smothered with buckets of gravy.
YUM YUM PIGS BUM!!!
Dessert is plum pudding and custard.
Now THAT’S Christmas dinner. If you want prawns, cold meat, whatever, have it Christmas night but not frigging Christmas Day!
I love Christmas. Love, love, love it! It’s my favourite time of year and I look forward to it every year.
It sometimes pisses me off that people lose the meaning, and retailers see it as nothing more than a money making excercise, but overall I love it. No Grinch lives in our house.
December 1 will see a Christmas theme hit Reflections and solace, so be prepared for it.
I’m happy with the theme I have at the moment, but I will have a seasonal one to put up.
Now. Your turn.
Traditions?
Hot/cold meal?
Family coming?
Tell me! I love hearing all of it!!

This is a post I did some time ago, and it was one of the most popular I ever did.
I know it’s cheating, but hey, we all have to cheat now and then right?
Back me up here people!!!
;-)
The title of this post was:

It’s not exclusive

Why is it many young people of today {now how old does THAT make me sound???} think love is an exclusive emotion only felt by people between 15 and 30?

What makes them think people lose the desire, or indeed, the ability, to love as they age?

Do they think we know nothing of love? Romance? Or {shock horror!!!} making love?

Let me assure, I could, without a doubt, give some damned good lessons on making love. Love does not consist of one long fuck! {not that there’s anything wrong with the odd one of those let me say!!}

Do they seriously believe their parents created a family through virginal births? When will they realise there’s only ever been one immaculate conception, it wasn’t theirs, and that their parents actually “did it”??

The other question I would like to ask is what makes people think love is only a feeling as opposed to actions?

I’m a romantic at heart. I love picnics, candlelit dinners, having Mark buy me flowers because he knows the ones he saw are my favourites. {tulips if you’re thinking of sending any!}

When we got married our “reception” was fish and chips, with white wine, by the lights of the Sydney Harbour Bridge as the QE2 left dock at Circular Quay {a well timed event, not planned btw} We didn’t need a big fancy place, or have the need to spend squillions of dollars on a huge to do as seems to be the norm these days.

I don’t see that as romantic in any way shape or form.

When will people realise love is holding their loved one’s head as they vomit because they’re so exhausted and ill, that they can’t?

It’s a million and one little things you do. The look that can pass without words and still be understood.

The unspoken understanding that sometimes you just shouldn’t watch your favourite show at full volume.

The times you DON’T do something you want to because you know your partner would prefer not to.

True love endures.

It’s strong.

It’s resilient.

It also needs to be nurtured, and caressed, and that takes time. It doesn’t suddenly vanish once you reach a certain age.

True, deep love, can sustain a person through almost any event which may befall you. Death, disease, tragedy, all the things that shake a person to the core. It’s having someone beside you that can soothe, hold and comfort you without the need for words. They’re just “there”. They just “do”. they give you the strength to deal with it without even having to try. They just “are”.

Love is not exclusively for the young, nor is it merely a feeling. It’s actions, words, and the ability to love someone despite their faults. Accepting their imperfections, as they accept yours.

When you love, you should love unconditionally.

And what’s with trying to “change” something you don’t like about the person you love? If they change, does that not make them different to the person you fell in love with?

When will the young realise love doesn’t diminish with time? It becomes stronger, and deeper.

It gets better with age.

Welcome to my newest home.
I have no idea how you arrived here, but I thank you for visiting my youngest baby.
Nothing has been imported from my old site, even my stats are back to 5 parts of nothing, so it’s going to be fun trying to get them back to some level of respectability. Actually, just to have double figures would be a bonus at this point!

Much will be different this time around. Not only has the URL changed, so has my name and there will be other differences as well.
I will not be changing my theme with the regualrity that I change my underwear. This theme is easy to deal with, the code is more than readable, and it took me days to find just THE right pic for the header. Being Australian and wanting to use the tagline that I have, nothing other than the Southern Cross was sufficient. I thank she who gave me several options, but ultimately Mark was the winner. He found it on the NASA site and it fitted perfectly AND showed all of the Southern Cross.
Thanks hon! You’re a legend!
Thus far I only have those I consider my rocks on the blogroll, but once you comment, if you were on my roll before, then I’ll add you as well. In that respect nothing will change. I will not add people for the sake of adding them. I’m quite particular about that and always have been. I see no point in having the longest blogroll in the world if you don’t visit at least once a day, and that’s not possible as we all know. I may not always comment, but I do visit. Most of you would be aware of that.
All first comments go to moderation by the way, so don’t be worried if it doesn’t show straight away. I’ll go through and approve them of a night.
There will not be as many bells and whistles this time around. I have basic plugins and stats, some of which you see, others you don’t. This will be a low maintenance blog, less in the sidebars so far, however that could change at any point. Can’t have you thinking I’m not still the maniac I always have been now can I???
That’s it for now. Posting schedule will be at my leisure, could be every day, may only be twice a week, that remains to be seen.
If you have any suggestions, requests, questions or merely want to throw money, accolades or any of that good stuff, there is a contact form, so feel free to use it.
For now I’m off to enjoy a perfect Nth QLD Sunday.
Please try not to upset my baby, and no loud music please. The equilibrium around here is wonderful and I’d would like to keep it that way.